Communications, Public Relations, & Advertising

Business Card

Business cards are useful and effective for several different reasons. Not only do they add value to your professional image, but they serve as a great marketing tool. Keep a stack of them in your wallet, hand them out at networking events, give a handful to your friends and family to hand out, there are so many different ways to utilize them. They offer a way for people to remember who you are.

Imagine you are an interior designer and have a high school class reunion to attend. Once you arrive, you start talking to all of your old friends and classmates to catch up on where everyone is in their lives. You’re in a conversation with several people, and one of them mentions that they just bought a new house. You immediately inform them that you’re an interior designer and tell them to give you a call if they are ever considering hiring one for their new home. But how can you ensure that they are going to remember you after talking to hundreds of other people at this event? You give them your business card. It is a physical reminder to them of who you are, what you do, and to get in touch with you. Even if they end up not needing your services, they might come in contact with someone who does and instead of trying to remember your information, they’ll have a physical card to give that person as well.

If you don’t have one already, you need to make one. It is vitally important for your business/career as a successful professional. If you don’t know where to start on creating one, I am going to give you some tips on making the perfect business card.

I recently made a new business card for myself and used Adobe InDesign to do so. It was such a simple process. I started by creating my own dimensions for the card, and then added images and text on top of it. If you don’t want to start with a blank slate, there are several websites where you can buy or find free templates to download, then it is as easy as filling in the blanks with your information. For mine, I started with a blank slate so that I could create the perfect look for my professional image. Just like Adobe Photoshop, the software works in layers where each new item you add is a layer added on to the previous one. Below is a screenshot of the business card being created where you can see the different layers I added to produce the finished product.

Once I was finished adding all of the lines, backgrounds, colors, and text, I downloaded it as a JPEG. It is important to note that if you are creating it for print, you will want to download it as a PDF for the best quality. Some important information you will want to include on your card is your name, title (creative assistant), and contact information (phone, email, address, etc.). Once you at least have those, then you can add other things such as your website, social media, logo, or even a picture of yourself. It all depends on what your style is and how you want to be presented to others. Below is my business card as a JPEG.

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If you are still unsure about using Adobe InDesign as a way to create your business card, then there are other options, such as Vistaprint. No matter what you have use to get your own card, do it. It is a great investment and will only benefit your success in whatever it is that you do. Not only is it extremely beneficial to create one, but it’s fun too! You are able to use your creative side and play around with different styles to create exactly what you want.